‘Please help me find my dead son’s body’

Amanda Devlin

Parents searching for their dead son’s body 13 years after he was killed say a mystery gardener could help solve the case.

Jonathan Dolton was 21 when he disappeared from his home in Park Road, Stony Stratford, in February 2002.

Refusing to give up hope, parents Sheila and Alan Dolton took the investigation into their own hands. They discovered a gardener had found blood in his skip the week their son was killed – but failed to report it to police.

This week the couple, who now live in Oxford, returned to Milton Keynes to hang up posters appealing for witnesses in a desperate bid to get the truth.

Sheila said: “After all these years of searching, I found out a local gardener saw blood just yards from where our son’s car was found abandoned in Heelands.

“It’s horrendous to think of my son lying inside a skip so I have been searching for him – in all the places that a body could possibly be.

“But I am not getting any younger.

“I can’t see myself being able to search for much longer – although I know I will keep going.

“If this gardener is able to tell us what he saw, it could help us find Jonathan.”

Almost three years after his disappearance, friend Stuart Martin was convicted of Jonathan’s manslaughter.

But Martin died in 2010 without revealing where he dumped the body.

Police claim jealous Mr Martin was “fixated” on Jonathan, who had a girlfriend. But Mr and Mrs Dolton believe there is more to the story.

They have hung posters in Heelands, Stony Stratford and CMK in the hope any witnesses – who may have hesitated to get in touch before the killer’s death – will get in touch.

Sheila added: “I am trying to make sense of it all. Nothing about it feels right.

“I have no answers.

“I don’t know why Jonathan was killed or what actually happened to him.

“I have to face the possibility of not finding him, but we will never give up hope.

“I cannot move on until I get my answers.”

If you have any information, call 01865 727012 or email sheiladolton@yahoo.co.uk